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Sunday, April 08, 2007

March 19, 2007: More Prayer Shawls (pictures coming later)

More Prayer Shawls

Well, for someone who literally thought she was going to die from nausea this morning (I have had a weird combo of stomach flu and allergic nausea from asthma - not that anyone needs to know this! ), I am finally out of bed this evening and have begun work on another prayer shawl. Marie couldn't get me one of the yarn colors I'd asked for, but that's okay. The substitute color is fine, and it is probably a "God thing" that this color yarn got chosen instead of what I'd asked for. What I had asked for was Lion Brand Yarn Homespun in "Baroque" which is a marled purple/violet. What I have is Homespun in "Goth" purple. Wow. Need to turn the lights on a higher setting to work with this one! But it will be classy for someone. And purple is the color of penitence, so who knows what the shawl recipient is going through? Not for me to know! It's my job to ask God to bless the dear lady with the gifts and graces that HE knows are best for her.

Marie also found me some Wool-Ease Chunky in the color "Nantucket". Oh! I loooooooove this yarn! It is rather a storm blue/green. I am going to work with this yarn in a closed crochet pattern.

The Homespun "Goth" purple shawl has been started on Size 11 (American) straight needles in the Knit 3, Purl 3 Seed Stitch representative of the Holy Trinity. I cast on a few more stitches and am using bigger knitting needles this time than last. Also will be using more yarn.

I'm planning on alternating between knitting the purple shawl and crocheting the storm blue/green shawl. Variety is the spice o' life, yes!

Marie promised me more yarn for the prayer shawl ministry, and told me that she will be yarn shopping out of town sometime soon. She said that I can ask for something besides Lion Brand Yarns if I like. Anyone have any suggestions? I would love to work at least one really pretty shawl with simple cables in Fisherman's wool, but I can get that here in town. Even though I live less than 45 minutes away from Herrschners in Stevens Point, I don't get to the Yarn Shoppe ever (I plan on dragging my Momsie there this summer when she comes up from Florida). My yarn budget has been very limited over the past years because of living on disability, so I've been content to be able to work with Lion Brand yarns. However, I drool over some of the really pretty, nicer, albeit more expensive yarns out there. Someone is donating money to our parish for the prayer shawl ministry, so the parish provides me with yarn for shawls. I couldn't afford to do all this otherwise. I feel just like a little kid in a candy store being offered nicer yarns at someone else's expense.

So, to my knitting and crocheting friends, what are *your* favorite yarns? Please provide me with links to your favorite yarn companies' websites so I can begin to shop online for what I want Marie to bring me. I don't want to eat up too much of the parish yarn budget with ultra expensive yarns. And keep in mind that a lot of these prayer shawls will be going to either older or sick with cancer ladies. They will need easy maintenance yarns that don't requiring handwashing and air drying, but I don't exactly want to be using Red Heart Super Saver cheap yarn. Sometimes I have good luck with Super Saver for afghans, and sometimes I don't. So I just leave it alone these past few years, though I see Wally World here in town carries it.

Here are a few not-too-artistically shot snaps of the first two prayer shawls. They both measured 60" long before laundering and drying. They reached arm to arm on a big girl like me, but as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I would have liked them to be longer if they would have been for me personally. I was working with limited yarn. Marie says they will be just perfect for a couple of smaller elderly ladies - something simple and without fringe.

Okay, back to my Scrabble game and then a Three Stooges movie. I have been too sick to enjoy my Netflix this month and I want to catch up on some Vitamin L (Laughter).

Thank you all for the kind thoughts and prayers today. Please pray that I shake this nausea. It is hard to have the courage to will to live on nights like last night and mornings like today.